The third studio album for American artist Melanie Martinez called “PORTALS” debuts at the top in Australia this week.
“PORTALS” (Atlantic US) becomes the 972nd No.1 Album in Australia (1965 to 2023), the 823rd for ARIA (1983 to 2023), the tenth No.1 for this year, the 603rd to debut at No.1 and the 27th for Atlantic Records plus their second for this year after Paramore on Feb. 20th (they will most likely score another in early May when the new Ed Sheeran set arrives).
Melanie Martinez has previously charted with her first two studio albums “Cry Baby” (HP-27, Aug. 24th, 2015) and her first Top 10 entry “K-12” (HP-6, Sept. 16th, 2019), while her new set “PORTALS” also debuts at the top in New Zealand (her first their too), plus No.2 in England, No.3 in Scotland and Ireland and at No.4 in Germany (so far), plus she also takes out the No.3 spot on the local vinyl sales chart.
This is the first time ever that the word ‘Portals’ has ever been seen in the charts, let alone sat in the No.1 position, while the new chart-topping album also becomes the 343rd for an American Artist (solo male or female, duo or group) to make it to No.1, plus the 159th by a Solo U.S. Female Artist and the sixth for this year, with eight of the 15 chart weeks this year seeing female acts occupying the top of the Album Charts. Melanie also becomes the 166th American Act and the 40th Solo Female American to land a No.1 Album in Australia.
Local act DMA’s see their fourth album “How Many Dreams?” debut at No.2 this week, equaling the debut and peak position of their previous album “The Glow” (July 20th, 2020) and it also continues their streak of Top 10 studio Albums, with their first two being “Hills End” (HP-8, March 2016) and “For Now” (HP-7, May 2018), while they’ve also landed two live album entries with “MTV Unplugged: Live” (HP-94, July 2019) and “Live at O2 Academy, Brixton” (HP-39, March 15th, 2021) making this new set now their sixth Top 100 entry, plus the album is the No.4 Vinyl this week and has landed first week at No.3 in England and at No.2 in Scotland.
The debut studio album for the collaboration of Julien Baker, Lucy Dacus and Phoebe Bridgers under the moniker boygenius called “the record” enters at No.3 this week, while it’s also the No.1 selling Vinyl album locally and lands at No.1 in England, Ireland, Scotland and The Netherlands, with a No.2 entry in New Zealand, with the trio of female artists first issuing a self-titled EP in October of 2018.
The two country acts within the Top 10 are back-to-back this week, with Morgan Wallen down one spot to No.4 with “One Thing at a Time”, while he still occupies the No.2 singles slot with “Last Night”, followed by a two place drop to No.5 for the new Luke Combs set “Gettin’ Old”, which sees a cover of Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car” debut at No.18 this week, his second ever Top 20 single locally.
The only non-movers within the Top 10 are “Midnights” for Taylor Swift at No.6 (No.7 Vinyl) and The Weeknd’s collection “The Highlights” at No.7 (No.1 Catalogue Album), the current longest running Top 10 Album at 87 weeks (of 113 within the chart). Dropping down three places to No.8 is the Harry Styles set “Harry’s House” (also No.8 Vinyl, WI10-46), while last week’s No.1 entry for Lana Del Rey and “Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd.” drops down eight places to land at No.9 (also No.9 Vinyl), which continues her streak of a single week at No.1 in Australia for her five chart-topping albums. Dipping one spot to No.10 is the SZA album “SOS”, which after seventeen weeks of charting (all within the Top 10) has been newly certified as Gold (●) in sales.
TOP 20:
The only Top 10 dropout to survive again within the Top 50 this week is The Weeknd set “Starboy” (HP-1, WI10-13a), down two spots to No.12, followed by two more former No.1 sets which dip slightly, “Endless Summer Vacation” for Miley Cyrus (11 to No.13) and “Trustfall” for Pink (13 to No.14).
The only two albums which climb within the Top 20 this week are “1989” for Taylor Swift (17 to No.15) and “Curtain Call: The Hits” by Eminem (21 to No.19), while Elton’s “Diamonds” set dims two places to No.17 and the Morgan Wallen “Dangerous: The Double Album” falls back six places to No.20. Returning to the Top 100 at No.18 (LW-194) is the Tyler, the Creator album “Call Me if You Get Lost” (HP-2, 5 July, 2021), which returns thanks to expanded edition with eight extra tracks as “The Estate Edition”, with one of those tracks “DOGTOOTH” debuting at No.39 on the singles chart this week.
TOP 30:
Three Taylor Swift albums lay within the Top 30 this week; “Lover” (19 to No.21), Reputation (28 to No.25; No.13 Vinyl and the only rising album within the Top 30) and “folklore” (23 to No.28), with drops also occurring for Ed Sheeran’s “÷ (divide)” (16 to No.24), the Maroon 5’s “Singles Collection” (24 to No.29) and The Weeknd with “After Hours” (29 to No.30) which logs its 156th week within the Top 100, that’s equal to three years of charting (it debut March 30th, 2020 and has only spent two weeks outside of the Top 100 since it’s debut).
TOP 40:
Luke Combs’ “This One’s for You” is down four to No.26, while he is down two to No.33 with “What You See Ain’t Always What You Get”, with the big dropping albums into this chart region being Ed Sheeran with “= (equals)” falling six to No.31, “AM” for Arctic Monkeys declining eight to No.35 (No.10 Vinyl) and tumbling twenty-eight places to No.40 is Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon” (No.6 Vinyl), while Dua Lipa’s “Future Nostalgia is down five to No.38, it’s lowest ever position.
TOP 50:
The sixth and final Top 50 entry for Taylor Swift is on hold at No.43, “Red (TsV)”, followed by Luke Combs’ fourth and final entry, his third set “Growin’ Up” which drops down seven places to No.44. The “Aurora” album for the group and TV show Daisy Jones & The Six is down four places to No.46 after peaking at No.42 last week, while the self-titled Harry Styles set falls eight to land down at No.49. The two other Top 10 dropouts for this week both debuted within the ten last week, Fall Out Boy with “So Much (for) Stardust” (LW-4) and “Everything’s Fine” (LW-8) for Matt Corby, both falling into the lower fifty this week.
FURTHER NEW ENTRIES:
* #11 (LP#3) – 370HSSV 077EH – Private Function (Private Function) lands at No.2 on the Vinyl chart this week, plus it becomes their second chart entry after “Whose Line is it Anyway?” (HP-9, September 7th, 2020). The album’s title is to be read upside down and back-to-front, like when you punch numbers into a calculator and they spell a word when you turn it around, and it also has a limited edition scratchie record sleeve.
* #16 (LP#7) – The Love Still Held Me Near – City & Colour (Still Records/Cooking Vinyl Aust.) is the seventh studio album and sixth solo entry for Dallas Green under his moniker of City & Colour, while this new set also lands at No.5 on the Vinyl chart. His second issued album “Bring Me Your Love” (HP-31, Feb. 2008) was his only other non-Top 10 entry, in-between then and now he has charted with “Little Hell” (HP-2, June 2011), “The Hurry and the Harm” (HP-4, June 2013), “If I Should Go Before You” (HP-5, October 2015) and his last was with “A Pill for Loneliness” (HP-8, October 2019).
New Certification:
SOS – SZA ●
HP = Highest Position
LW = Last Week
WI10 – Weeks in Top 10
*ARIA Chart info is based on sales for the week from the 31st of March to the 6th of April 2023
Written, Compiled and Researched by Gavin Ryan.
Stay updated with your free Noise11.com daily music news email alert. Subscribe to Noise11 Music News here
Be the first to see NOISE.com’s newest interviews and special features on YOUTUBE and updated regularly. See things first SUBSCRIBE here: Noise11 on YouTube SUBSCRIBE
Follow Noise11 on Social Media
You’ll discover music news first following Noise11 on Twitter
Comment on the news of the day, join Noise11 on Facebook
Gavin Ryan reports with thanks to Australian-Charts.com
